Alexander V. Litvinenko

Alistair Fuller/Associated Press

Updated: Dec. 18, 2012

Alexander V. Litvinenko, a former K.G.B. officer and critic of the Kremlin who had won asylum in Britain, died in November 2006, after drinking tea laced with a radioactive isotope, polonium 210, at a meeting with Russian contacts in London. He was 43.

Mr. Litvinenko’s death created one of the most stirring dramas of espionage since the cold war. It chilled relations between Britain and Russia, leading to tit-for-tat expulsions of diplomats. Russia’s refusal to hand over the man accused of killing Mr. Litvinenko has since stymied efforts to restore normal ties.

The British authorities have accused Andrei K. Lugovoi, a former K.G.B. bodyguard who is now a member of the Russian Parliament, of murder and requested his extradition from Russia. But Russian authorities say their Constitution forbids extradition of their own citizens.

Mr. Lugovoi, who has denied any wrongdoing, in turn accused the British secret intelligence agency, MI6, and a self-exiled Russian tycoon, Boris A. Berezovsky, of organizing the killing. They have denied the allegation.

The precise nature of the evidence against Mr. Lugovoi has not been outlined, though investigators have linked him and an associate, Dmitri V. Kovtun, to nuclear traces stretching from luxury hotels and offices in London to Hamburg, Germany, and to British Airways planes that had flown to Moscow.

Mr. Litvinenko died after weeks of debilitating illness. He became ill the day he met Mr. Lugovoi and Mr. Kovtun at the Pine Bar in the Millennium Hotel, across from the American Embassy, in Grosvenor Square. At the meeting, Mr. Litvinenko drank tea, which his associates have since asserted was laced with polonium.

New testimony that emerged on Dec. 13, 2012, deepened the intrigue surrounding the death Mr. Litvinenko, offering prima facie evidence of Russian state involvement and indicating that he had been a paid agent of the British Secret Intelligence Service, MI6, lawyers at a preliminary inquest hearing said.

The potentially explosive assertions were made at a procedural hearing before a full inquest, set for May 2013, into Mr. Litvinenko’s death.

Hugh Davies, a lawyer acting for the inquest, said evidence provided by the British government had established a “prima facie case as to the culpability of the Russian state in the death of Alexander Litvinenko.”

Neither the Russian authorities nor Mr. Lugovoi offered any immediate response to the accusation. Mr. Litvinenko’s adversaries had long depicted him as an agent of British intelligence, accusing him of trying to recruit Mr. Lugovoi. But the details of his role had not been enumerated publicly until the hearing.

Ben Emmerson, a lawyer representing Mr. Litvinenko’s widow, Marina Litvinenko, said that Mr. Litvinenko, who fled to Britain in 2000 and became a British citizen weeks before his death, had for some years been a “registered and paid agent and employee of MI6, with a dedicated handler whose pseudonym was Martin.”

He would meet his handler in central London, Mr. Emmerson said, and discuss the encounters with his wife.

Mr. Litvinenko also worked for the Spanish intelligence service, Mr. Emmerson said, and both the British and Spanish spy agencies made payments into a joint account with his wife. He added that the inquest in 2013 should consider whether MI6 failed in its duty to protect him against a “real and immediate risk to life.”

Mr. Litvinenko’s contacts and meetings with Mr. Lugovoi have been documented in the past, but there seemed to be a further twist to their relationship, according to Mr. Emmerson, who said the two former K.G.B. officers had been scheduled to travel together to Spain to give evidence to the Spanish security services about possible links between Russian organized crime and the Kremlin.

A lawyer for the British authorities, Neil Garnham, said he could neither confirm nor deny whether Mr. Litvinenko had been a British agent.

Mr. Litvinenko was also a close associate of the self-exiled Russian tycoon Boris Berezovsky, another of Mr. Putin’s adversaries. Hugo Keith, a lawyer acting for Mr. Berezovsky, denied any involvement by his client.

“It’s not open to an individual to get polonium 210,” he said. “The suggestion that Mr. Berezovsky is responsible is implausible.”

The testimony set the stage for highly contentious hearings in May, at which both Russia and Britain may be forced to deal with unwelcome questions about what their security services knew about events leading to the killing.

Motive is Still a Mystery

Of the many gaps in the Litvinenko jigsaw, the biggest is the question of a motive. If Mr. Litvinenko was, as his adversaries in Russia long maintained, a British agent, was that enough to justify a vengeful state conspiracy to silence or, at the least, make an example of him? Or does the Spanish connection offer a more plausible line of inquiry?

In 2010, American diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks described the conclusions of a Spanish prosecutor, José Grinda González, in support of Mr. Litvinenko’s oft-voiced belief that the Russian security and intelligence services “control organized crime in Russia.” Was that the trigger for a killing?

But that is where the story crosses into a world of flawed loyalties and double-dealing. As the December 2012 hearing revealed, in late 2006, Mr. Litvinenko had been about to embark on a journey to Spain to tell investigators about bonds between the Russian mafia and the Kremlin — a follow-up to a secret visit in May 2006, during which he provided critical information about Russian organized crime bosses. Months later, he was dead.

The twist in the latest disclosures was this: His companion on the second voyage was to have been another alumnus of the K.G.B., Andrei K. Lugovoi, a successful Russian businessman, who just happens to be the person British prosecutors have accused of poisoning Mr. Litvinenko.

In the years immediately after Mr. Litvinenko’s death, it was possible to cast it, as British prosecutors did, simply as the murder of a British citizen by a foreigner. (Mr. Lugovoi denies killing Mr. Litvinenko, and Russia has refused to send him to Britain to stand trial, citing constitutional prohibitions on the extradition of its own citizens.) After the latest assertions, however, the case shifted to a far more ominous plane — the alleged state killing of a state agent, a conspiracy on foreign soil, a throwback to the cold war.

Chronology of Coverage

Jan. 29, 2015

Russian entrepreneur and former KGB member Andrei K Lugovoi calls claims that Russia engineered death of KGB whistle-blower Alexander V Litvinenko in 2006 'nonsense'; Litvinenko, spy for British agency M16, was poisoned with radioactive polonium 210; Lugovoi's remarks come during second day of investigation into Litvinenko's death. MORE

Jan. 28, 2015

British officials start public investigation of death of former KGB officer and Kremlin critic Alexander V Litvinenko, who died of radiation poisoning in 2006; lawyers for Litvinenko's widow say they plan to present evidence leading directly Russian Pres Vladimir V Putin and his ties to Russian Mafia. MORE

Jan. 25, 2015

Long-awaited public inquiry into 2006 poisoning death of former KGB officer Alexander V Litvinenko, who, from his death bed, accused Russian Pres Vladimir Putin of ordering his murder, is set to begin in London. MORE

Aug. 1, 2014

British Judge Robert Owen opens high-profile inquiry into poisoning death of former KGB officer Alexander V Litvinenko, fierce critic of Russian Pres Vladimir V Putin; says allegations of Moscow’s involvement will be of importance; court will not hear witnesses until January 2015; some hearings in case will be closed, due national security concerns, and some findings will remain secret. MORE

Jul. 23, 2014

British authorities announce public inquiry into death of former KGB officer turned whistle-blower Alexander V Litvinenko, eight years after he was poisoned in London; inquiry will permit investigators to explore whether Russian leaders ordered killing; announcement reflects about-face by Prime Min David Cameron's government, which had resisted demands for scrutiny of Litvinenko's death in effort to improve relations with Russia. MORE

Feb. 12, 2014

London High Court rules that British government will have to reconsider opening public inquiry into death of Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko in London in 2006 after he was poisoned with radioactive substance; ruling may result in reexamination of diplomatically sensitive issue; inquiry could delve into whether Russia was involved in death. MORE

Jul. 20, 2013

British authorities announce for the first time that 'international relations' have been a factor in blocking public inquiry into poisoning death of former Russian KGB officer Alexander V Litvinenko. MORE

Jul. 13, 2013

British officials refuse to hold public inquiry into death of former Russian intelligence officer Alexander V Litvinenko, quashing any hopes of finding out what lay behind the former spy's poisoning in 2006. MORE

Jun. 6, 2013

Britain's Judge Robert Owen urges government to hold public inquiry into 2006 death of Alexander V Litvinenko, former KGB officer poisoned in London. MORE

May. 18, 2013

Robert Owen, coroner overseeing British inquest into poisoning of former Russian security agent Alexander Litvinenko, rules that he had to exclude evidence on whether the Russian state was involved in the killing because of national security grounds. MORE

Feb. 28, 2013

British coroner says that he will hold secret hearings in advance of planned inquest into death of Alexander V Litvinenko, former KGB officer who died after ingesting rare radioactive isotope in London in 2006. MORE

Feb. 27, 2013

British government seeks to limit information disclosed at planned inquest into death of Alexander V Litvinenko, former KGB officer who succumbed to radiation poisoning in London in 2006, and coroner hearing the case says it may be postponed. MORE

Dec. 18, 2012

Hearing into 2006 death of former KGB officer Alexander V Litvinenko only adds to speculation about why he was poisoned in London bar, leaving many wondering whether mysteries of his murder will ever be solved. MORE

Dec. 14, 2012

Testimony at London hearing on 2006 poisoning death of former KGB officer Alexander V Litvinenko offers evidence of Russian state involvement and indicates that he had been paid agent of M16, British Secret Intelligence Service. MORE

Sep. 21, 2012

Slow-moving effort to hold an inquest into the poisoning death of Russian whistle-blower Alexander V Litvinenko moves ahead, with British authorities insisting that possible contacts between him and the British secret intelligence service should not be disclosed. MORE

Aug. 10, 2012

British judicial authorities appoint Judge Sir Robert Owen to lead inquest into death of former Russian KGB officer Alexander V Litvinenko, who was poisoned in London in 2006 with rare radioactive isotope polonium 210; hearing may provide first opportunity in the case for witnesses to testify under oath. MORE

Oct. 15, 2011

British coroner Andrew Reid agrees to open a full inquest into the radiation poisoning of former KGB officer Alexander V Litvinenko, potentially bringing the case before a British legal forum for the first time, opening new seams of information about his death and possibly stirring new tensions with Moscow. MORE